Sunday, 16 September 2012

So, this is a shot I started working on the other day. I wanted to get some animation done, and I find dialogue clips really inspiring, when I can find one for my taste. And this clip, from The Shining, is just my thing.
I love the timing of it. And that you can feel a living person in there. Someone with experience. Someone who has experienced some disappointments in life, but has now come to terms with who he is. And that being him, might not be such a bad thing after all.
Yet, he still thinks back, regretting how things were. Perhaps he was quite the idiot, before he surrendered to his fate.

And I enjoy that feeling of an experinced person giving his advice to someone less experienced, that this clip contains.

At least, this is what I heard and felt when I came upon this clip.

For the animation, I have done a stupid thing. I haven't planned anything out, but roughly in my mind. It is against everything I have learned, and I feel bad about that (as I should).
Yet I hope this will turn out okay. It is fun to get some animation going again.

I may jys cut that last handgeture. It feels... too much. I am going to try it out without it, at least. I had this idea of him gesturing at the person he is talking to, implying that this person isn't shining either... But right ow, the gesture is just too much.

I talked to one of the animators at work about his way of working. I have always been taught to plan my shots carefully, making nice thumbs, and not start working in 3D before I was certain of what I wanted to do. This has never felt intuitive enough for me. Some people say the first idea that comes to mind, is the worst, and you have to keep digging to find a good idea. But I tend to find, that my first idea is the most natural thing. If I start moulding it over for too long, I end up being very cliché and I start doubting myself. And I doubt the idea. And then I get stuck.
This guy at work says he and the other animatordon't plan that much. He prefers to go into 3D as fast as possible. I have always felt bad that this is how I like to work. But hearing this made my day. I find that the character speaks to me, when I look at it in 3D. And I find the best poses when I have a rough idea, and then sculpt it in 3D.

Oh well, we all have different ways of working. I do keep my timeline clean. The lack of planning means I have to be that more carefull - if anyone wants me to make changes, I need to be sure that is possible.

Been getting some more stuff in there, while slowly fixing spacing and arcs. I am still working on this. In this version, there aren't that many keys on the second half of the shot, And that is what I am going to do today. As well as adding extra movement on the hips, clearing up arcs and spacing, in particular on his movement backwards. In general, this is the point of the process where I tighten it up as much as I can, before I start polishing it. Which is a lot messier for me. I try to keep my timeline clean and flexible. I can still make larger changes without getting lost.

THis is probably as far as I can take this right now. I tried a bit of lighting - I am no good at it, but at least it isn't too distracting either.
Basically, I have been doing a lot of polish on this one. I think it has become quite nice now. In all my shots there is something I wished I had done differently. In this one it is the leaningback. I thought I had more frames to play around with, but it ended up really tight, and a bit too fast for me. But that is how it goes sometimes.